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Orphan Star Chapter 13

Chapter 13

With a bounce in her step Lirca walked in front of Mason as they headed down to the recreation deck to play video games. With a smooth easy agility and balance she turned around in mid step and started to walk backwards. “Inu, I want of play the star fighter simulator” She said while her crystal green eves gave him a pleading look.
As happened more and more his heart melted and he gave her whatever she asked for. “Sure we’ll play Double Wingman” he replied.
Suddenly a man walked around the corner of a connecting passage and Lirca walked backwards into him. The man grabbed Lirca and started to pull her back into the smaller connecting corridor that he had just come out of. The part of Mason which had been ordered to protect Lirca slowly awoke after having been pushed far back in his mind for weeks. With a low growl he jumped for Lirca and the man, but his reflexes slow from his having pushed his mission to the back of his mind let him down. He just missed them as the man ducked around the corner with Lirca. Then everything went black as the man who had come up behind Mason hit him across the temple with a blackjack.
Lirca came out of the shock which had immobilized her and started to tear herself away from the man who had her when Mason’s body collapsed into the entrance of the cross corridor. She froze, images of Dr. Marl being killed in front of her flashed through her memory. In the time she was momentarily frozen with shock again the man holding her spoke “You be quiet and don’t cause a fuss or we will kill your friend” Still in shock all Lirca wanted to do was keep Mason from getting hurt any more. She never considered that they would lie to keep her quiet. When the second man looked at her and raised his blackjack as if to hit Mason again she quickly nodded her head “I’ll be quiet” She squeaked out quickly.
With an evil smile the man holding her said “Yeah I thought that would convince you.”
Pushed ahead of the man Lirca was quickly guided deep into the depths of the ship. The other man followed carrying Sgt. Mason. They finally arrived at one of the holds deep in the ship not having seen anyone on the way there. After they had entered Mason was dumped on the floor and the two agents turned to Lirca.
Mason slowly fought against the blackness that tried to pull him down. He was conscious enough to not let out a sound when he was dumped on the floor, but still to weak to move. He opened his eves to find himself facing a scene he was powerless to affect.
With a shove the agent who had been holding Lirca pushed her away from himself while the other agent pulled a rod out of his pocket. About a centimeter in diameter and 15 centimeters long Mason recognized it as a disrupter. When fired it totally stopped any electrical currents in its range. Against a living organism it was instantly lethal.
Mason desperately willed his body to move in the effort to save Lirca. Slowly, to slowly, he moved his arm to bring the shadow gun to bear.
Lirca was confused. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen but she didn’t want to show her strength or speed. She was also very scared for Mason. She watched as the man who had hit Mason pulled a little rod from his pocket and then with no warning point it at her and activate it. She felt a wave of tingling go over her body and then she started to feel blackness edge her vision. Instinctively she willed the feeling away and her head instantly cleared. In her peripheral vision she could see a faint yellow glow where the energy from the rod was now stopping just short of her skin.

Mason watched in disbelief as the disrupter appeared to hit a force screen around Lirca and stop. The invisible energy of the disrupter luminesced yellow as it stopped a couple of centimeters before her skin in a body hugging shield. Mason still fought his paralysis to bring the shadow gun to bear on the men. As soon as it did, right after the disrupter was fired, he fired. A beam of energy so intense it was almost blinding appeared to be emitting from his outstretched arm. It hit the agent holding disrupter in the side at mid chest level and cut him in half, literally vaporizing his chest. Mason then tried to swing his arm the few centimeters necessary to fire on the other agent, but the effort caused a wave of blackness to wash over him and strip him of consciousness.
Lirca jumped back when the white beam of energy impaled the man in front of her. A flicker of movement to the side where the other man was standing caused her to turn and look. The second agent had already pulled a small blaster from his pocket and was raising it to fire at Mason. Lirca could see by Mason’s limpness that he was again unconscious. A decision was made. In the flicker of an instant she went from a dead standstill to blurred motion. Almost instantly she hit the agents back disturbing his aim enough that the blaster discharged on the wall behind Mason’s body. Not knowing what else to do she grabbed the agent around the neck and with all her strength tried to pull him away from Mason. In her almost blind rage a feral sound emitted from her throat causing the agent to panic. Dimly Lirca felt the agents throat crush and his struggles slow then with a sharp crack that shocked her back to reason his neck snapped. He collapsed in a heap on the floor with her on top. She quickly scrambled off his body and ran over to Mason. The shock of what she had seen and done hit her and with scared sobs she knelt beside Mason and tried to wake him. “Inu, Inu, please wake up don’t be hurt bad” She cried in a small choked voice.
The sound of a groan brought Mason back to consciousness. That and the hands shaking his body. The groan was his but the hands shaking him belonged to Lirca. “Lirca? What?” he half said as he opened his eyes and recognized her. Then with a start of remembrance he sat up quickly. A blinding wave of pain shot through his head from the violent movement. After a second of stillness he slowly looked around to see both dead men. He knew he had killed one but could not see how the other had died. Then he noticed the blaster laying just beyond the second mans hand where he had dropped it in death. He slowly pulled Lirca onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her sobbing body. “Lirca, what happened” He asked as the pointed at the second agent.
Incoherently Lirca told what had happened “I didn’t want to hurt anyone but he was going to kill you. I couldn’t let you be hurt Inu. Don’t quit loving me Inu, I just wanted to help you” She sobbed even harder.
Inu Mason hugged the little girl even closer. “Ah Lirca, I’ll never stop loving you. he said to her. He loved her like the daughter he had never had and now owed her his life as well. He definitely had some questions though, some very serious questions for Mistress Hevanti and come to that the colonel also. Mason pulled himself and Lirca back against the bulkhead. The effort left him weak and dizzy, his head pounding in pain with his pulse.
The security squad who reacting to the alarm that an energy weapon had been fired in the hold found Mason with Lirca in his lap tears on their faces holding each other and taking comfort that they were alive.Next